( 4UMF NEWS ) NYPD Steal Prisoner’s Car For Joy Ride:
Rashad Lewis, 26, was rotting in jail while his $150,000 Mercedes was flying around New York City, running red lights and raking up tickets – and he wants to know how it happened.
Lewis claims that an NYPD officer took his wheels for a joy ride instead of straight to the impound lot, causing damage to the car’s windows and he wants them to pay the price.
The NYPD, however, says there was no foul play – they were simply driving the car to a more secure impound lot across town for the safety of the vehicle.
‘My back window was broken, my driver’s-side door was keyed, and my bumper was scratched up,’ the Queens college student said to the New York Post. ’They were driving my car with the windows down and having a ball joy riding my vehicle.’
Lewis was arrested with a friend, Gregg Humpherys, 22, while the two were driving past Bloomingdales on August 3.
Police stopped Lewis after he allegedly blew through two red lights. They collared him after they found several forged credit cards in his possession, stashed in the center console and scattered across the floor of the car, according to the complaint against him.
Both men were arrested and charged with 13 counts of possession of a forged instrument. He was released after he posted $3,500 bail.
‘My car was seized,’ Lewis said. ‘I went through the whole process. I was at the precinct for 12 or 13 hours. I posted bail and was released the next week.’
A week or so later, he received a shock in the mail: a traffic ticket, complete with a photograph of his car blazing through a red light while he was in jail.
‘My first reaction was, “Are you guys serious?” I had a whole bunch of emotions running through my mind,’ he told the Post. ‘I felt violated. I don’t know if they could have committed a crime in my vehicle.’
He wants to know who the alleged joy rider was and what happened to his car.
‘We’d like to see is who is driving the car, how they got the car, where they were going with the car and whether the police department condones this action,’ Lewis’s attorney, Marvyn Kornberg, told the Mail Online.
He said his client will absolutely fight the ticket and possibly seek compensation from the NYPD for the alleged damages to the car.
But Paul Browne, the NYPD’s spokesperson, said that Lewis didn’t have a problem with the condition of his vehicle when he picked it up from the Springfield Gardens Auto Pound in Queens.
‘There was no joy ride, and the driver’s claims of damage came after the fact,’ Mr Browne told the Mail Online.
That’s messed up…
